The invention relates to a metering device with a housing for receiving a replaceable receptacle, wherein the receptacle is connected to a disposable pump.
Metering devices with a housing for receiving a replaceable container, in the majority of cases a refillable container, have naturally been known per se for a long time. They are used for the controlled, rapid and automatic delivery of a mostly liquid or at least flowable substance, thus for example in the case of soap dispensers, antiseptic skin cleansers, liquid medical substances and the like, very frequently and increasingly, however, also in the foodstuff and gastronomy sector where, for example, beverages, juices, sauces, soups or semi-liquid additives such as mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise and the like have to be delivered in portions with handling costs that are as low as possible, however nevertheless meeting predefined hygiene standards. Most recently, precisely because of the hygiene requirements, manufacturers have started to provide the refillable containers themselves, which contain the refillable substances in aseptically packaged form, with disposable pumps which are already connected or are at least easily connectable. Single use of pumps has clear advantages for it is adequately known that fixedly installed pumps or conveying mechanisms can often only be cleaned and made available for renewed use in a hygienically satisfactory state at great expense. This is why refillable containers with disposable pumps connected thereto make particular sense.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,482 shows a metering device for liquids which is suitable for receiving containers with disposable pumps connected thereto. Said metering device has a housing for receiving a replaceable receptacle, an electric drive motor for driving the disposable pump, control means for controlling the drive motor and for influencing the pump volume as well as an electric power source for supplying energy to the electric drive motor and the control means. In addition, the housing has a receiving means for mounting the disposable pump in a positive locking manner. The receiving means for mounting the disposable pump in a positive locking manner in this case is developed such that, when the disposable pump is inserted into the positive-locking mounting, the axis of the drive motor is coupled in a forcibly actuated and non-rotatable manner with the axis of an impeller wheel of the disposable pump. The disposable pump is realized as a positive displacement pump and has two interlocking impeller wheels.
The device according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,482 is realized in principle for dimensionally rigid replaceable receptacles, however it also shows an embodiment with a flexible bag with a strengthening or mounting or suspending means molded on one side which serves on the one hand for the purpose of providing embedded button cells for providing energy, on the other hand however also exerts a holding function in order to prevent the full or also part-drained flexible bag from collapsing into itself. All disclosed realization variants of U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,482 consequently show solutions where the dimensional stability of the replaceable receptacle is present or remains constant.
In principle, the fact is that the collapsing of a flexible refillable receptacle during the draining operation should be avoided where possible because it has been shown again and again namely that when there is premature collapse a relatively large proportion of the contents remains in the flexible container. During collapsing, the resultant fold points become insurmountable outlet obstructions. The pump used is no longer able to drain the container contents in such cases and the resultant bag and contents wastage is naturally highly undesirable.